Plastic nonwoven webs formed by nonwoven extrusion processes such as, for example, meltblowing processes and spunbonding processes may be manufactured into products and components of products so inexpensively that the products could be viewed as disposable after only one or a few uses. Representatives of such products include diapers, tissues, pads, wipes, garments and feminine care products.
Some of the problems in this area are the provision of an elastic material which is resilient and flexible while still having a pleasing feel. One problem is to provide an elastic material which does not feel plastic or rubbery. The properties of the elastic materials can be improved by forming a composite of an elastic material with one or more nonelastic materials on the outer surface which provide better tactile properties.
Nonwoven webs formed from nonelastic polymers such as, for example, polypropylene, are generally considered nonelastic. The lack of elasticity usually restricts these nonwoven web materials to applications where elasticity is not required or desirable.
Composites of elastic and nonelastic material have been made by bonding the nonelastic material to the elastic material in a manner that allows the entire composite to stretch or elongate so they may be used in garment materials, pads, diapers and feminine care products.
In one such composite material, a nonelastic material is bonded to an elastic material while the elastic material is in a stretched condition so that when the elastic material is relaxed, the nonelastic material gathers between the locations where it is bonded to the elastic material. The resulting composite elastic material is stretchable to the extent that the nonelastic material gathered between the bond locations allows the elastic material to elongate. An example of this type of composite material is disclosed, for example, by U.S. Pat. No. 4,720,415 to Vander Wielen et al., issued Jan. 19, 1988.